Avatar Yakona
by weir'wyvern-85
Summary: AU where the world has decided it is time for a new Avatar even though Aang has not been released from the iceberg. Around the time of Iroh's taking of Ba Sing Se, a time when no one is expecting a new Avatar, but when they severely need one. I DO NOT OWN AVATAR


**This is an AU where Aang is still in the iceberg, though he is not dead, the world decided it was time for a new Avatar—something that no one is expecting or looking for. The time range is right before and during Iroh's attach on Ba Sing Se, Lu Ten's death, and Ozai's rise to the throne. Please Read and review!**

"Yakona" I laughed as my friend popped up from under the icy waves soaking me with the salty water before diving back into the depths on the back of her giant otter-wolf. Her braided hair swept up behind her in the wind as she dived down, the two braids hanging around her face swaying with the momentum of her otter-wolf's speed, her grey eyes lit with excitement.

I braced my feet on the shell of my turtle-seal as he jumped a wave in the choppy water and took a stance many of the water benders of my tribe often used. Breathing deeply, I pushed the water behind us into an enormous swell and felt as Miko rose with it.

"Nakola!" I heard Yakona cry from behind me, with my concentration broken, my wave died down and I looked back at her.

"You made me drop it!" I protested annoyed, at least until I saw what was now chasing my friend, and with the direction she was swimming, me as well.

"Don't come towards me!" I yelled as the blue whale-tiger shark started gaining ground on her. Again I took the stance and began pushing the water, the cold fluid following the movements of my body as I directed it.

I felt Miko's speed fasten and I was glad my shelled friend had some common sense unlike the girl behind me, honestly, she could have swam away from me. I looked over my shoulder to make sure she was riding the wave I had created to find her hanging on tightly to her otter-wolf's fur.

"Distract it!" I shouted over my shoulder still concentrating on keeping the wave between us and the blue whale-tiger shark. As fast as the giant beast could swim, the wave was only just keeping us out of its mouth, and that was not going to last for long.

I could see its striped blue skin far more clearly than I ever wanted to, as all the elders had told us, if you can make the stripes out from the rest of the skin, you're probably dinner. It had larger teeth than I expected, I had always imagined nasty, needle thin things that would stick into your skin with sharp torture. The teeth I saw now, yellowed in areas, were sharp, yes, but they were large and cone-like, good for eating things with large bones.

Yakona tightened her grip around her otter-wolf's midriff with her legs and began bending the water current far beneath them to rise in a hurried stream straight at the charging beast that held its mouth open in anticipation.

The force of the current slowed the beast, but it was still coming for us, its persistence to find a meal admirable. Rooting myself more fully to Miko's shell, I pushed the water further until the wave was as tall as any of the icebergs floating around us, and just tall enough for me to see over the ice wall that led into the city we both lived in, the city that did not approve of girls bending.

"This'll be fun" I muttered as I pushed the water harder and catapulted both Yakona and myself over the ice wall and onto a mound of snow sitting in the right place just under the wall. We both let out grunts of pain as we landed, the snow having eased the impact but not erasing it, Miko and Terra having landed on top of their respected owners.

It was quiet, a beautiful sound after such a terrifying chase, so of course we had to break it. The both of us burst into laughter, our faces turning red and tears leaking out of our eyes, I fell back into the snow holding my stomach and Yakona doubled over.

When the laughter subsided, at least ten minutes later, we tried to stand but found our feet were captured in the snow. We were forcibly jerked around, the ice around our feet pulling our bodies around to face a middle aged man with dark hair that came down to his stomach, half of it pulled up into a bun on the top of his head. His face was contorted into a look of disapproval and triumph at having caught us.

"Pakku" both of us growled at the same time, I crossed my arms over my chest as Yakona went on to say "Let us out"

"I saw what you were doing" Pakku said annoyed crossing his arms in an unintentional mimicry of my own stance. Terra—Yakona's giant otter-wolf shook the snow off of her head and turned to growl at the water bender. Miko, my little turtle-seal bravely hid behind my legs.

"And what exactly did you catch us doing, holding two girls hostage in the ice?" she asked back sarcastically and his nose turned a shade of pink but he refused to back down.

"No. I saw two _girls_ water bending, strictly against water tribe laws" he responded "What would the two of you have done if Chief Koonak had caught you?"

"What'd you expect us to do, just let that blue whale-tiger shark have us for lunch, it was only because I remembered your basic stance that the two of us are alive right now!" I exploded, Miko barking unhappily behind me.

"If you had been at the healing classes with the other female water benders, you wouldn't have needed to escape the whale-shark" he replied back smugly.

"Healing, that's too easy, I want to fight!" I argued.

"But that's strictly against the laws of the water tribe" said a calm voice from behind us. Yakona and I both tried to turn our bodies to see who it was. Being more flexible, I bent my body back so that I could look up to see the upside-down figure of our tribal chief, Koonak looking down at me.

The chief was a man around his late sixties, his hair white as the snow and tied back with beads showing his rank "Let them out Pakku"

He did as he was bid and let the ice fall away from our feet and making me fall without the support I had been using to hold my legs up. Miko rubbed his soft nose against my face silently asking if I was okay and I ran my hand down his slick hide in reassurance, Terra continued to growl softly next to Yakona.

"I've told you many times you are not allowed to bend unless it is for healing purposes" he said looking down at us both "It is a tradition that has been held by the Northern tribe sense the dawn of bending"

"It's a tradition that needs to be changed" Yakona said back angrily.

"I will not have this argument with the two of you again, you are forbidden to use water bending for fighting, am I understood?" he asked looking at us both in the eye.

"Yes sir, no fighting" I replied quickly before Yakona could say anything, if we fought, we would be fighting all night.

"Good, I'll let you off with a warning today, I need to prepare for Arnook's birthday feast tonight" he sighed in a worn out way and he looked to Pakku "Have you practiced for tonight's festivities?"

"Yes, I'm ready to perform" Pakku answered proudly and I rolled my eyes. Yakona met my gaze and we both nodded before we started to crawl away from the two men.

Once we were sure they would not see us, or at least not stop us, we began running. Miko and Terra kept pace with us as we ran for the open spaces outside of the city walls, a place full of snow and water—plenty of space to bend without being seen.

"Ugh! That Pakku, who does he think he is!" Yakona shouted frustrated "Just because he has so much natural talent he thinks he's the chief's right hand man!" she shouted into the frozen tundra around them, Terra howling her own annoyance.

"We'll train, we'll get better than him and we'll take him down" I said, trying to see something good for our futures.

"How? We won't be able to find a master, no one's going to teach us because we're _girls!_" she said mocking Pakku's arrogant voice.

"Dress up as guys and get into the class?" I suggested.

"Right, because no one is going to question two random water benders they have never seen in the North before" she said discounting the idea quickly.

"Say we're from the South… go to the South" I suggest.

"The South is being raided almost every day now, they're trying to round up all of the water benders from there—Kanna was the last to move there" Yakona said sadly.

"What then?" I asked her, completely out of any ideas.

"I don't know!" she screamed into the air, pivoting on one foot, the other lifted out into the air turning into a roundhouse kick that stopped pointing high into chilled evening sky, a large jet of flame emitting into the air. The heat from the flame was so hot that I could feel it from several feet away, and it was so ferocious, Terra and Miko were backing away in fright. Yakona was watching with wide eyes as she directed the flame and kept her eyes wide as it died down into nothing but smoke.

Our eyes met, both wide with astonishment—Yakona had just fire bended. As the heat from the unexpected fire died away with the smoke, our paralysis slowly faded as well.

"You did not just see that" Yakona mumbled into the too quiet evening.

"I saw nothing" I agreed nodding my head numbly.

"Well that's too bad" said a harsh female voice as a blonde headed woman followed by a mob of dangerous looking people stepped out from behind a hill of ice, dressed in the greens and dark browns of the Earth Kingdom with the vagabond air of pirates "because I just saw something quite amazing. I just saw the new Avatar, and I'm sure I could get a very nice price for her in the fire nation"

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**So, what'd you think? Should I continue? In case you're worried, Aang is not dead and everyone else is either younger or simply not been born yet. Please R&R.**


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